Due to the gradually dwindling reserves and declining production of crude oil in the U.S.A., a number of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects have been undertaken to stimulate production from known oil fields that are beyond their economic recovery limits. One of these EOR methods injects a surfactant into the reservoir which lowers the oil-brine interfacial tension and allows more oil to be produced. Such processes are commonly known as micellar or micellar-polymer floods.
Although surfactant systems have proved successful in mobilizing and recovering additional oil, they have also introduced problems which have heretofore not been encountered. Foremost among these is the need to demulsify the produced oil. The emulsion is caused primarily by the surfactants, cosurfactants and polymer used in the process. The demulsifying process of the present invention is particularly applicable for separating emulsions of this type.